June 22, 2005

Ha-ha: Leftists Go Apeshit Over Durbin Apology

William Teach, of the Pirate's Cove, invited us to put on our hip-boots and wade on over to dKos's place to see what the Bush=Hitler/loud-music=torture crowd is saying. But it's not the soul of Markos 'everything=torture' Zuniga I'm worried about. It's the normally lucid John Cole:

So Senator Durbin was forced to go to the well of the Senate to offer up a blubbering 'apolocorrection' after being cut off at the knees by Mayor Daley of Chicago. This was his second attempt to apologize for telling the truth...

And yes, John, Durbin's remarks 'really are that offensive' for those of us who have a connection to the tens of millions killed in the gulags, were the victims of Nazi extermination plans, suffered the fate of being an enemy of Saddam, or have friends with relatives massacred in Pol Pot's killing fields.

Anyway, as one of a minority of right-of-center bloggers who accepts Durbin's apology at face value let me also add that no such pass will be given to the unapologetic America haters, such as Kos who says:

Torture isn't a partisan issue. And by apologizing, Durbin caved to those who worked their best to turn it into one.

I would also suggest reading this interview with a Gitmo interrogator. As Bluto observes, the interview calls into question the accuracy of the information Durbin used as the basis of his accusation. Even so, I believe there is a legitimate discussion to be had on the proper limits of interrogation methods. However, you cannot have such rational discussion with the blame America first crowd which jumps to the worst conclusions at the slightest accusation of impropriety--especially when no consensus has been established on what exactly is an acceptable interrogation method when Americans are still in the line of fire.

I'm not against Congressional oversight of military prisons, as is their Constitutional duty in Section I, only partisan ploys to overhype with disgusting equivication instances of abuse with institutionalized genocidal mass-murder.

Kos finishes his post by seconding Steve Gilliard who says:

But Dick Durbin can go f*ck himself.

UPDATE: Risking the chance that I'll lose readers to a better blogger, here is a taste from a post Ace does in response to Andrew Sullivan. The argument is equally applicable to all the Leftists who are hyping alleged abuse at Gitmo. But seriously, you have to read the whole thing:

But he refuses to address the central question: If you're not going to employ any coercive tactics against terrorists, how the hell do you expect to elicit information from them -- information, mind you, that will often (if not always) save innocent human lives?

Are there any coercive tactics he approves of? If so, it is his duty as someone who fancies himself an intellectual braveheart and straight-shooter to announce what levels of coercion he's comfortable with and would approve of. The tactics he is currently so, well, gob-smacked about -- denying air conditioning, chaining to the floor, playing loud rap music -- seem fairly mild. So it does seem, at least by implication, that Excitable Andy approves of no coercive tactics against terrorists whatsoever during interrogations, apart from raised voices and lots of cursing.